Across the Fabric of Space and Time

by Amy Giacomucci, Aurora Martinez del Rio, & Richard Monari 

Watch the Video.

Finely a Knitting Party.

We visited Finely a Knitting Party two times. During our first visit, we filmed a Saturday afternoon knitting class run by Cathy Finley, the owner of the shop. We photographed the space and conversed with the attendees, both on and off camera. At this time, we chose to collect footage of community-driven interactions interspersed with occasional questions from us regarding their current projects and past experiences with knitting. Then, in our second visit, we interviewed Cathy about her experience as the owner of the knitting shop and as a member of the knitting community. The physical space of the knitting shop and the community within it are tied together to form a linguistic landscape. A linguistic landscape is the interaction of different language communities within a physical space.

"...you know, you meet the best girls through knitting!"

Knitting as a Gendered Space.

Initially, when we visited Finely a Knitting Party, we acutely felt our positions as outsiders, but we were quickly welcomed by the community stakeholders. Everyone who participated in the video was eager to explain their experiences with knitting, as well as show us the ropes. It should be noted that the members of the community consider the knitting shop to be a predominantly female space; indeed, during our visit, we only encountered women (and one small boy with his mother). Richard, who is male, felt particularly conscious of his masculinity as he navigated the space. Richard commented that, “Every time that men were mentioned, members of the community would turn to me and say ‘you know, you meet the best girls through knitting’”. This behavior suggests a widespread underlying expectation that men are uninterested in knitting. “I got the sense that they felt like they had to entice me with the promise of a date, and that I wouldn’t be interested in the actual practice of knitting.” Despite this, we all felt welcome in the space. This was reinforced by Cathy’s responses when we spoke with her about the knitting community.

Constructing a Tight-Knit Community.

"what happens at the knitting table, stays at the knitting table"

In these interviews and during our time in the space of Finely a Knitting Party itself, we observed the ways Cathy interacted with us and other patrons. Cathy’s body language and tone of voice suggested that she is very proud of the atmosphere that she created in the shop, and she clearly does her best to make sure that every member of the knitting table is involved and engaged with the community. This attitude likely contributed and possibly even fostered the “tight-knit” community at Finely. Furthermore, the attitude of ‘what happens at the knitting table, stays at the knitting table’ cited by Cathy in our video, which contributed to the frankness, openness, and irreverence of the knitting table discussion, was likely due to an effort on Cathy’s part to create the safe space for discussion that she had shared with other knitters in the past. This attitude characterized our interactions with Cathy and the other people of the knitting shop.

About the Authors.

Amy Giacomucci is from Prospect Park, Pennsylvania. She is currently majoring in linguistics.
Richard Monari is a native of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He is also a Linguistics major.
Aurora Martinez del Rio is from Laramie, Wyoming. She majors in linguistics.